I am very proud to introduce this article. There is not much info about this glider. I succeeded in contacting the designer and getting some info and pictures I could use.

I will just place the texts I got from Roberto Stickel first and will comment after it.

" The idea of the PYXIS project is to have a new aerial sport that could deal with many different kind of flight with a sophisticated, practical and safe equipment. Pilots could fly like a sailplane, be a skydiver, fly aerobatics and fly like a jet fighter with the aid of jets or rockets. It seems a radical sport, but the dangerous and difficult part of flying (takeoff and landing) will always be made with the help of others aircrafts. Attached over skydivers airplanes or under ultralights or catapulted over rails in hang gliding sites for takeoff and landing will always be with the precision and easy handling of a skydiving conservative parachute that will bring you and the microglider together to the ground. This concept of flying means much more liberty of aerodynamics design, much less glider weight (25 Kg) and less responsibility. Pilots will always use a parachute to land, no matter what happens in flight. If weather condition is really strong and turbulent, the microglider can be disconnected from the pilot (it will land with his own emergency parachute). The great point of this flying concept over others is that any skydiver or paraglider pilot will be able to fly it immediately. There is a "fly by wire" electronic control system that can be tuned to pilots that never flew any aircraft before or highly skilled pilots. Microglider assembling and transportation will be very quick and practical."

I got this mail from Roberto Stickel:

"I'm working on this for 20 years !! Believe me . My first sketch ( you can see the evolution of the project in the third poster on my website) was made in 84. It was basically a wing connected to a small canard. Something a bit more sophisticated than the SKYRAY flying wing (used by Felix Baumgartner to cross the Channel) in performance and controllability. In the fourth poster , you can see the flight of the version with tail. This was in 92. That flight showed me that the wing can not stall while the parachute is opening. I changed completely the concept to a flying wing with full possibility of gliding in thermals and able to receive others sizes of wings to fly acrobatics and to use jets to fly like a jetfighter . There was no model jet engines at that time, but I knew that they were supposed to be available when my project was ready ( just knew that some people are using them to takeoff sailplanes). In 96 I flew the Sukhoi 27 in Moscow to feel how is flying a fly-by-wire jet and of course to realize my life dream. Last two posters are about my previous work with hang gliders and ultralights. I designed the first hang gliders and ultralights here in Brazil in 81, 82. One of them was the first variable profile rigid wing. At that time there was very few rigid wings in the market. Basically the Fledge and the Mitchell wing. The problem of them was always low performance at lower speeds and high stall speed for a feet takeoff.
So, I used a standard profile for the whole flight and a very thick Liebeck profile with a 2.2 lift coefficient (very good at very low speed and very bad at higher speeds) for takeoff and thermaling. The variable profile was supposed to be made by Manta, the manufacturer of the Fledge. Manta broke after the end of class 2 (rigid wings) after the Japan 81 world championship ( I was flying there), and so my project ended with them.

By the way: yesterday flew for the first time one 1/3 scale model of the latest version of my Pyxis. ( the 1/1 is ready for the first radio controlled flight).
Best regards,
Roberto Stickel"

Waw, sure is a combination of a lot of good points from all kinds of sports. Safely of landing in parachute. Not having to steer while taking off and climbing to altitude as a beginner. Well, it is kind a bit the same like they do it the RC (Remote Control) world. I once did RC and in the beginning somebody else steered it to altitude and I could test my model at high altitude (safer!!). Once I wanted to land somebody took over again. Here it is with a parachute. I guess it goes as safe. But I am not a skydiver. So ... I might underestimate a few items of skydiving. Tell me if I am wrong.

A flying wing: You would do it only for the looks if you needed to.  ;^)
But it has advantages too. It could lead to better glide ratio because there is almost no fuselage and tail to create drag. I sure hope we will soon get data of the model and many the prototype to affirm this.

Proned pilot (lying on his stomack): I guess it takes him logic from the hanggliders. The face in front gives less frontal area. And it gives a SUPERB view. But I wonder... where will they put the instruments? Can one see the instruments clearly from so close. Or will they use the mirror technique of the Horten Brothers. They used a mirror in the front to view instruments that were placed under their body. This way the distance eye - instrument became larger and the eye had to adjust less while shifting from the forwards view to instruments. It must be less tiring.

If you would like to join this project, contact Roberto Stickel. Wanna be a owner, partner or sponsor of the project? Don't wait too long. Contact him.

I cannot wait to see reports of the actual glider.

More info in Portuguese at http://www.necostickel.com.br/ 

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